Assimilation and Hip-Hop : Interethnic Relations and the Americanization of New Immigrants in Hip-Hop Culture

The conflict thesis and the segmented assimilation theory account for two of the most significant trends in American immigration and ethnicity studies. Both of these major theoretical styles are utterly pessimistic towards interethnic relations in the United States and assimilation into African American urban culture. I have asked in this thesis if the experiences and the history of hip-hop culture can counterbalance these negative interpretations of interethnic relations. Hip-hop culture has for several decades had levels of contact between African Americans and other ethnic minorities that are, according to the conflict thesis and the segmented assimilation theory, rare in an American context. Hip-hop’s cross-cultural engagements can consequently give us a new point of view on the questions of assimilation and relations between African Americans and other ethnic minorities in the United States